Friday, April 6, 2012

Here is the conclusion J. C. Ryle felt we should be led to as we consider Christ's sufferings:

"And let us learn from the story of the passion always to hate sin with a great hatred. Sin was the cause of all our Savior’s sufferings. Our sins twisted the crown of thorns; our sins drove the nails into his hands and feet; on account of our sins his blood was shed. Surely the thought of Christ crucified should make us loathe all sin. As the Church of England Homily of Passion says so well: 'Let this image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts. Let it stir us up to the hatred of sin, and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God.'”

Thursday, April 5, 2012

A couple years ago, I had the privilege of leading the children at CrossPoint through material from Kids 4 Truth that centered on the atonement. Here is some of what I shared with them:

Christ’s atonement met four needs we have as sinners:1. We deserve to die as the penalty for sin.2. We deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin.3. We are separated from God by our sins.4. We are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan.

As a staff, we are reading through J. I. Packer's "Knowing God" and discussing what we read on Thursday mornings. I was particularly encouraged by the following:

"There is tremendous relief in knowing that (God's) love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me."

"There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose."